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The Lord praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly.
᛭ INI ᛭
What a text for the first sermon of a ministry! The Parable of the Unrighteous Manager is Christ’s most difficult parable. It’s the gift of the Lectionary, to force a pastor to preach a text he might otherwise avoid… So, with this one, we’re all in this together.
(5. Oops!: We’re all unrighteous managers of the Lord.)
You were bought with a price (1-Cor 6): the precious blood of Christ (1-Pet 2). His “blood set us free to be the people of God,” “redeemed us to be kings and priests for our God.” (Rev 5) As baptized, believing Christians “we are together a holy nation and royal priesthood.” (1-Pet 1) As priests we “offer our bodies as living sacrifices” (Rom 12) When we do this, we’re all servants in the household of God. We do this according to our vocations, where we are stewards and managers of what the Lord Himself has given us.
He speaks to each of us. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a pastor or a “father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker.” It doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher or student, friend or neighbor, rich or poor. Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, Both low and high, Rich and poor together. (Ps 49) Thus says the Lord to one, to all, to you: “What is this I hear about you?”
Such a piercing question! What would you even say to the Lord if He were to ask you that face to face? It was reported to the Lord that the manager in the parable was “wasting His,” that is, the Master’s “possessions.” He was an unrighteous manager, and we, too, are often unrighteous managers in our vocation, as well. We, too, squander what the Lord has freely given to us. We waste and take for granted. We misuse and don’t use and over use.
Having recently moved, I’m keenly aware of all the waste of the Lord’s First Article gifts. How much we didn’t move, how much we have, how much we didn’t really need to move! We’ve all got basements, garages, attics full, don’t we? And that’s just first article! How often we live as if Christ didn’t die and rise, as if we we’re not redeemed and set free from sin, that we were set free to sin… But we don’t just “waste” the Lord’s gifts like the prodigal son of a few weeks ago. We squander the Treasures of His grace and forgiveness being delivered, His 3rd Article Gifts. We don’t take up the Word like we should. We hold on to the sins of others and don’t pass on the Lord’s forgiveness to our spouses, children, coworkers, and neighbors…
(4. Ugh!: What’s the record of your management?)
“What’s this that I hear about you,” the Lord asks. And how would you answer? You probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t either. Like a kid silent before his parents. But the Lord doesn’t stop with a question. He demands more: “Turn in the record of your management!” With such a demand, we do what the unrighteous manager did. We try to cook the books, adjust something, anything to get an angle out from the Lord’s judgment.
And the record of management will come to light someday—the Last Day. What’s your record? How are you doing as a “father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, worker”? And what sort of record will be presented on the Last Day? It will be. As Daniel and John saw: “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” (Rev 20)
As the Psalmist cries out: “The ungodly are … like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” (Ps 1)
(3. Aha!: THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN.)
The Lord’s words ring true: “The sons of this age are more shrewd than the sons of light in their generation.” But this age and the age to come don’t work the same. In this age, you can work off your debts. Not so in the age to come. There even one debt can’t be repaid. For “None can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for his life.” (Ps 49)
“The sons of this age [may be] more shrewd than the sons of light in their generation,” but the Lord Christ is “fairer than [all] the sons of men.” (Ps 45) THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN. The manager becomes the Christ figure of the text, this is why “The Master commended,” that is, “praised the unrighteous manager because He acted wisely,” shrewdly, used all his smarts!
(2. Whee!: He forgives the entire debt of all His Father’s debtors.)
THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN. But how is this so? Well, you or I or people in the world see things through the lens of debt and repayment. The Lord doesn’t do it that way. Things work differently in His Kingdom. Like I just said, the debt for even one sin can’t be repaid. How could you? Even if you did a good work, that’s just what you’re supposed to do anyway. You can’t get any traction that way.
So, THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN. “How much do you owe My Father,” He asks. We can’t even make it past the First Commandment unscathed, let alone the other nine! So Christ takes your debt and slashes it. Not by half, not by a quarter. He takes the whole lot as His own. “The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, by His wounds you have been healed,” forgiven. God “has made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Your sins are all forgiven you. You were bought with a price. You were washed and sanctified in His blood at baptism. You are absolved of all your sins. Christ’s body and blood is given you for the forgiveness of ALL your sins. In fact, each time the Lord forgives it’s for each and all of your many sins.
(1. Yeah!: Thus, the eternal dwellings are ours, and we make friends by what is not our own.)
The Lord has given His Father’s Kingdom away! For you it’s free, for Him the cost was His life and blood, being reckoned unrighteous in your place. That is how THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN. After all, “Christ [crucified is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God,” the death of God, “is stronger than men.”
The eternal dwellings are yours based on what Christ has done for you. You will stand in the judgment because of Christ. Your sins are washed away, your name written in the book of life, written in the nail-of scarred hands of Christ IHS your Lord. His spotless record counts for you. It is delivered to you in His Word and Sacraments. It’s yours by faith alone.
And now we “make friends by unrighteous mammon,” that is, “we are faithful in what is not our own,” as Christ continues in Luke 16. You belong to the Lord. You are not your own. You forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. (Eph 4) So far as it depends on you, you live peacefully with all. (Rom 12) You work not to accumulate more for yourself, but “that you might have something to give someone who’s in need.” (Eph 4)
That also is how THE SON OF MAN IS MOST WISE AMONG ALL THE SONS OF MEN. He uses you and I, unrighteous and unworthy servants that we are to deliver good gifts, even as He abundantly gives to us: needs for this life, salvation from sin, and the Gifts of His Word and His Sacraments—especially His body and blood—to grant us a place among all who are sanctified. For His body and blood is indeed the medicine of eternal life, that we might live forever with Christ, after He resurrects us on the Last Day.
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